Minister pledges ‘judicious utilization’ of subsidy fund

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Pate, said the ministry will ensure judicious use of the N16 billion naira subsidy fund meant for the health sector.

Pate said this when the Administrator of the USAID, Dr. Rajiv Shah, paid him a courtesy visit.

The USAID administrator was in the ministry as part of effort to partner in the “save one million lives” initiatives.

Pate said although the fund had not been utilised in 2012, it would be effectively used in the deployment of frontline health personnel and equipping of rural health facilities, among others.

“ We have had the midwives service scheme, then late last year, village health workers were screened; additional midwives and community health workers have been screened and they are in the process of deploying them.

“And a condition of cash transfer mechanism was piloted in Abuja and is now being expanded to nine states; this agency is actually driving the implementation of that.

“And that is using the subsidy investment programme fund that government committed about N16 billion. This fund was not spent in 2012.

“But we hope that they will do a lot better job in terms of using the resources to deploy frontline health workers, equipped rural facilities but also do the conditional cash transfer on a demand side, “the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the minister as saying at the forum.

Pate said the maternal and child health was a key agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that the “save one million lives” initiative was a strategy to address the issues.

He, however, noted that the most strategic aspects of the initiative include the prevention agenda, clinical governance and unlocking the private market potential agenda.

The minister also said the Ministry of Finance was committed to ensuring that adequate vaccination, especially the polio immunization, was carried out in the country.